Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

May 14, 2012

Oregon Child Safety: Some Good News

A recent report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers some refreshingly good news concerning Oregon child safety and Oregon injuries to children. As summarized by the Associated Press, the report indicates that, nationwide, “accidents are killing far fewer children and teenagers than in the past.”

The even better news for us here in the Pacific Northwest was that Oregon was among the states reporting the greatest declines in injuries and deaths among young people.

As the news agency reports, across the United States “the death rate for youths age 19 and younger dropped about 30 percent from 2000 to 2009. The number of deaths dropped too, from about 12,400 to about 9,100.” Much of the drop in fatalities can be attributed to an especially dramatic 41 percent fall-off in traffic-related deaths. “The CDC didn’t analyze exactly what caused that decline, but officials believe it was helped by measures like graduated drivers’ licenses and use of child safety and booster seats,” the article, as republished by Roseburg TV station KPIC, notes.

May 7, 2012

Clackamas Child’s Death Spotlights Child Safety Issues

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Last month’s death of a toddler in Boring, Oregon, in Clackamas County, highlights in the most tragic way possible the importance of both safety awareness when adults are operating potentially dangerous equipment around children, and the need for manufacturers to consider safety in the design of their products.

According to The Oregonian, an 18-month-old girl died last month in Boring “when her father… accidently ran over the girl as he was parking his tractor.” The injured Oregon child was evacuated by helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center but died a short time later.

According to the newspaper “police are not pursuing criminal charges against the father.” This horrific tragedy, however, contains several important lessons for us all. First, and most importantly, it is a reminder of how crucial it is for all adults to be aware of their environment at all times, but especially when operating machinery that has the potential to kill or injure a child. Farm equipment and lawnmowers spring immediately to mind when considering these issues – but they apply to many other household goods as well. There have been instances over the years of small children getting caught in washing machines or dryers. Refrigerators, especially older ones that may no longer be operational, also pose significant risks.

April 29, 2012

Crane Accident Verdict Highlights Importance of Civil Courts

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Last month I wrote about a criminal trial in New York considering liability for a 2008 industrial accident in Manhattan. Two construction workers died when their crane collapsed. This week, following a 10-week trial, a New York judge dismissed all four charges against the crane’s owner, who was accused of cutting corners on safety in several ways, notably by hiring “an unqualified Chinese company to make repairs to the crane because it offered a low price and quick turnaround,” according to the New York Times.

The newspaper notes that the verdict “underscored the difficulty of proving criminal liability in construction accidents, especially when the city and others are accused of mistakes in oversight and regulation that lead to fatal episodes.”

Families of the victims expressed understandable dismay when the verdict was announced. The Times, however, reports that the case is not over. “The families still have a civil suit pending,” it reports, adding that the acquittal on criminal charges “does not effect the civil case” where, as the plaintiffs attorney noted, there is a lower burden of proof.

April 25, 2012

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month

by Matthew D. Kaplan

I could not let the month end without taking note of the fact that April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, so designated by the US National Safety Council.

As The Oregonian and other local media have noted, police and other law enforcement officials are marking the month with stepped-up efforts at both enforcement of the state’s two-year-old distracted driving law, and at education. The paper reports that last year the “state police pulled over 3,782 drivers suspected of texting or talking on a handheld cell phone, a 7 percent increase over 2010.” It further notes that the OSP issued over 1,400 tickets and 2,350 warnings.

It’s also worth noting that this month Idaho and West Virginia became the latest states to outlaw texting while driving. That brings the total number of states banning the practice to 37, according to the ‘Family Car Guide’ website.

April 23, 2012

Oregon Child Injury is a Reminder of the Importance of Window Safety

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A few weeks ago I posted an item marking National Window Safety Week. This weekend brought a sad reminder of why this issue is so important. As The Oregonian reports, citing Tualatin Valley first responders, “a two-year-old Tigard girl was taken to an area hospital Saturday night after she fell from a second-story window at her home.”

The newspaper reports that the girl was conscious when found by emergency services personnel, but offers no other updates on her condition or the nature and extent of her injuries. The injured Oregon child was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, the paper notes.

In a further reminder of the importance of this issue – and why all adults need to be aware of open windows, or windows with inadequate screens – the newspaper goes on to note that “a 3-year-old Clackamas girl broke her elbow” in a similar recent fall. It adds that experts say 70 percent of all injuries to children from window falls happen between noon and early evening, when warm weather is apt to draw children closer to open windows.

April 20, 2012

Oregon Pedestrian and Car Accidents Can Be Avoided With Increased Awareness

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The latest newsletter from Oregon’s Department of Transportation offers a timely reminder now that spring is here: “Warmer weather and longer days naturally bring out more walkers,” it notes. “It is each individual’s responsibility to be safe – on foot or behind the wheel.”

The agency offers a dual reminder. Drivers should be aware that more people will be walking (and, though the release does not mention it, biking) with the arrival of spring and summer. That fact requires special vigilance on the part of drivers. Pedestrians, however, also need to be reminded responsibility is, so to speak, a two-way street. Situational awareness can save your life.

According to the ODOT “as of April 11, 20 pedestrians have died in vehicle related crashes” across Oregon. That number represents a 25% increase in Oregon pedestrian car crashes compared to the same time period last year. The statistic is particularly striking since, as the newsletter notes, “overall Oregon is down slightly in vehicle-related fatalities for 2012 (74 deaths so far compared to 76 at this time in 2011).”

April 17, 2012

Preventing Traumatic Brain Injuries Emerges as NHL Priority

by Matthew D. Kaplan

They are not slickly produced but, arguably, ought to be up for some sort of award. Throughout the long hockey season the NHL has not only been assessing tough penalties on players who cross the line in what was already a rough sport: the league has been going out of its way to explain its decisions as part of hockey’s efforts to reduce traumatic brain injuries and other serious injuries to players.

As the season began the league hired Brendan Shanahan, a recently retired player known for his toughness throughout a long and distinguished NHL career, as its Senior Vice President of Player Safety. Enforcing new rules governing blind-side hits, hits to the head and other dangerous maneuvers, Shanahan has spent the season handing out suspensions both for moves that would have been legal a year go and for others that were never legal, even in the rough-and-tumble world of the NHL.

What is different is that these disciplinary actions are not announced merely with press releases from the league office. Every one of these suspensions is explained by Shanahan himself in videos posted on the league’s website. In these videos Shanahan replays video of the infraction in slow motion, usually from several angles, and explains in detail the reasoning that led both to a decision to suspend a player and to the particular punishment he has meted out. There’s nothing quite like it anywhere else in professional (or college) sports.

April 13, 2012

Oregon Unsafe Product Verdict in Firefighters’ Deaths

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A Portland jury recently awarded $70 million in damages to a pilot who was injured as well as the family of another pilot who was killed in a 2008 helicopter crash, according to The Oregonian.

The case involved the 2008 crash of a helicopter “on a California mountainside killing nine firefighters, including eight from Oregon: it was either a well-known engine flaw or an overloaded craft,” the newspaper reports. The Oregon unsafe products verdict established that, in the jury’s view, the fault lay with the helicopter’s manufacturer rather than with the pilots. It was, one of the attorneys involved told the paper, a vindication for the pilots, living and dead. The “jurors unanimously said the crash wasn’t the pilot’s fault.”

The case turned on a defect in the helicopter’s engine. “General Electric, maker of the helicopter’s engines… knew for at least six years there were problems with a fuel control valve in the commercial engines the company built for Sikorsky S-61 helicopters,” the paper, citing the plaintiffs’ attorney, reports. GE blamed the crash on overloaded equipment and said the pilots were responsible because they allowed too many people and too much equipment onto their helicopters.

April 10, 2012

Hillsboro Blast Injures Ambulance Employee

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The explosion of an oxygen tank as it was being filled left an employee of the Metro West Ambulance service in Hillsboro injured over the weekend, according to a report in The Oregonian. The newspaper quotes the victim’s father saying that the employee received first- and second-degree burns and is currently in intensive care.

According to the newspaper the victim, “a volunteer firefighter with the Scappoose Fire Department,” was on duty, but working alone when the accident took place. He “was filling oxygen tanks at the (ambulance) service’s headquarters… when a malfunctioning valve caused an explosion and fire,” the newspaper reports, citing a spokesperson for the ambulance company.

Though most of us would not think of an ambulance company as a potential site for an Oregon industrial accident this incident is a reminder that, in legal terms, industrial accidents can involve almost any sort of business.

April 6, 2012

Oregon Home Explosion Leaves More Questions then Answers

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The explosion of a mobile home in Damascus, Oregon has raised numerous questions, even as seven families struggle with its aftermath, according to The Oregonian. The newspaper reports that the families are currently being helped by the Red Cross.

Their homes were damaged after a nearby mobile home exploded for reasons that remain unclear. According to the newspaper “the blast damaged a water main that serves about 30 people who live in the mobile home development.” Investigators have ruled out a natural gas leak as the cause of the Oregon explosion, but have few answers beyond that.

“At this point, you can’t rule anything out,” a Clackamas Fire District spokesman told The Oregonian. “There are still all kinds of possibilities – and combinations of possibilities – so we don’t want to speculate.” What is certain is that the damage caused by this catastrophic accident will disrupt many lives for some time to come. The inside of the mobile home that exploded was unoccupied, but a man who was sitting on the unit’s porch was badly burned.